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THE LOYALTY DEMANDED 

BY THE 

PRESENT CKISIS 



BY REV. JACOB COOPER. 



It is proposed in this paper to consider the sentiments which 
a truly loyal man should entertain toward those who are now 
called of God to exercise authority over the nation. This will 
involve a review of the difficulties which beset the Administra- 
tion at its beginning, and the necessities growing out of the 
war which the rebellion has forced upon our people. And, as 
no administration has ever before had to grapple with such 
tremendous opposition, or try so many hitherto untrodden paths 
of action, none have deserved so much lenity from loyal men 
for mistakes in judgment, or measures of questionable legality. 

It will be pertinent to the subject totdissect the character of 
those pretended patriots who, while proclaiming at the street 
corners and along the highways, that they are just as good 
Union men as anybody, yet, by their every act and word show 
their animus to be treasonable, and their influence with the ene- 
mies of our country. And, as there are connected with these, 
in effect if not in purpose, numerous croakers and birds of ill 
omen, who despair of the Republic, and magnify temporary 
advantages gained by the secessionists; who villify every mea- 
sure of the Government which was not enacted for their own 
special behoof; who predict the utter subversion of the Con- 
stitution when its enemies are punished ; it is proposed to show 
that the efforts of such persons have a direct tendency to weaken 
the hands of Union men, and strengthen the enemy, and there- 
fore, at this time, however allowable a certain licentiousness of 
speech may be in peace, are positively disloyal and wicked. 

The foundation of all stable government is the sanction and 
blessing of God granted to rulers. For by Him kings reign and 
princes decree justice: and, therefore, as the established powers 
are ordained of God, those who on insufficient grounds resist 




j,m$e, Receive to themselves condemnation and misery, 
■a&jfo'e ^ la Jers of the present unholy insurrection are learning to 
their confusion. It is very true that a government may become 
oppressive by subverting the liberties which it was established 
to protect: that a magistrate may lead the people astray by first 
forsaking God, as did Saul ; and thus both constitution and 
executive become a burden so heavy that the voice of the people, 
as a voice from heaven, cries out against the oppression, and the 
yoke is justly shaken off. But in order to justify such action 
the perversion must be unquestionable, and the tyranny intol- 
erable. The senseless murmurs of a restless and ambitious 
faction, or the disappointed hopes of shelved politicians, are not 
to be regarded. For these are usually nothing but the evidence 
that their occupation of making silver shrines for themselves is 
gone, and their uproarious cries are only the expression of sel- 
fishness, but do not in the least atone for the crime of rebellion, 
or compensate for the miseries, of a popular uprising. For 
governments, however well administered by fallible human 
agents, and over such creatures, can only be a system of com- 
pensations, effected by the surrender of individual preferences 
for the common good ; and hence it follows, from the nature of 
the case, that instances must occur wherein grievances are felt, 
and occasions made for selfish complaining. And while such 
complaining is counter to the spirit and needs of civil society, 
it is also unreasonable because subversive of the common good, 
and contrary to the diviae ordinance, which requires submission. 
Nor should the loyalty of the subject be expressed by a formal 
submission to authority, an outward obedience, as if extorted by 
fear ; but a hearty support, a cordial acquiescence in those mea- 
sures which the public welfare demands through personal sacri- 
fice. This is not all, the true patriot honors the ruler as such, 
though differing from him in political views, because he is the 
visible representation of the divine power in the state. Even 
when the character of the magistrate be such that a good man 
cannot approve of it, still, while the person cannot be respected, 
the office must be honored and obeyed. This is without doubt 
the true notion of loyalty — a sentiment far too little regarded 
in our country since partisan rancor ran so high near the close 
of Washington's presidential term, and, from the absence of 
which, our rulers have been deprived of that moral support 
which is imperatively necessary to the successful working of 
governments' when the purposes of the executive are thorughly 
honest. As a people, we have been nearly destitute of that 
romantic devotion to the persons of our magistrates which has 
so often been manifested in other countries ; and, while it is the 



highest earthly reward, is one of the firmest securities that the 
confidence bestowed will not be betrayed. It by no means fol- 
lows that we must approve of everything which the constituted 
powers can do in order to be loyal citizens. The divine right 
of kings to tyrannize was a doctrine never palatable on this 
side of the Atlantic, and is becoming less so generally on the 
other. Our danger has been in the opposite extreme, and our 
course in this respect has been to drive the better class of men 
from our political arena, and take as a dernier resort those 
second or third-rate politicians, who, but too well satisfied to 
feed at the public expense, did not shrink from the abuse and 
dishonor cast by the opposite faction, but which are so abhor- 
rent to a pure-minded, conscientious man. It is our privilege 
to learn wisdom from the results of our own errors ; and it is 
sincerely to be hoped that henceforth we will avoid that mis- 
taken policy to which we, in common with all democracies, are 
prone. 

A hearty loyalty on the part of the people toward their rulers 
being a christian virtue, as well as a necessary accompaniment 
of all stable government, it follows that this is the more indis- 
pensable when the existence of the state is threatened. For 
though in a time of profound quiet, when no unusual expedi- 
ents must be resorted to in order to maintain the supremacy of 
the government, it may be admissible, even necessary, to scruti- 
nize closely the conduct of rulers, and call them to strict account 
for doubtful measures, so that their improper actions may be 
corrected ; yet, when their overthrow is threatened by unlawful 
opposition, we should not, unless usurpation be unmistakably 
their object, withdraw our moral support. For it then becomes 
our highest earthly duty to rally without delay to their aid, 
and strike down the foe who endeavors to destroy our liberty 
in the person of our lawfully constituted ruler. And here let 
a common and fatal error be noted. Many hold that they can 
support the Government of the United States without support- 
ing the Administration ; that they can be loyal to the Constitu- 
tion while acknowledging no allegiance to those who have been 
elected in precise conformity with its provisions. That is, a 
man can be loyal to the Constitution while utterly disregarding 
its most important provisions ; can be obedient or disobedient, 
according to his interest or inclination ; can be at liberty to 
yield obedience when his favorite party is in power, and can 
wholly set at nought every obligation when his candidate is 
defeated. Such is the deplorable disloyalty manifested by many 
who claim to be Union men. Such is the sentiment of the 
peace party at the North, and the multitudes in the Border 



States who have taken the oath of allegiance to obtain Federal 
protection. But this is nothing but disunion manifested by 
those who are too cowardly to fight for a principle; and is just 
as hurtful, and infinitely more contemptible, than that open 
rebellion which the enemy in arms manifests. A grain of com- 
mon sense shows that we cannot separate between our rulers 
and the state, saying that we owe all allegiance to the latter 
and none to the former. Until any officer has been superseded 
by his rightful successor, he is our magistrate, and the visible 
representative of the only power on earth to which we owe alle- 
giance ; and whether we approve all his acts or not, we must 
obey, unless his commands manifestly contravene the law of 
God, and it is at our peril if we disobey. 

Now, if these things be true at all, that loyalty is a virtue, 
but resistance to lawfully constituted authority a crime of most 
aggravated character, then a fortiori at such a crisis as the 
present, it behooves us to unite in the cordial support of those 
whom God has placed over us, even though they, in their efforts 
to subdue our common enemies, may have encroached on some 
of our cherished rights ; for, as before said, government is a 
system of compensations by which conflicting interests are 
united when all is at peace ; of course, it follows that in war 
each man must surrender more of his private interests, and sink 
his own individuality far more in the common good*. There 
is no sacrifice which the state may not justly call him to make ; 
and the same holds good of particular parts of country and 
podies of people constituting the whole. These doctrines are 
irrefragably true if any system of government be maintained, 
and no opposition would be offered to them if they were pro- 
mulgated in the abstract ; but the special application of them 
to our own case is fraught with difficulties, because the con- 
flicting interests of the few shut out from view the common 
good of the whole. To this, the greatest evil by far which now 
besets our political pathway, special attention is directed. 

At the commencement of the present insurrection, the Gov- 
ernment of the United States was called to legislate for a peo- 
ple of various political views, influenced by strongly conflicting 
interests, and holding to hostile institutions. Added to this, 
the party previously in power had been the vacillating but ever 
dishonest tool of those who had long been the advocates of 
secession ; and in their interest had perverted the whole power 
of the nation, as well as wasted the resources of the people. 
There was a powerful faction arrayed agianst the incoming 
administration, which, having prejudged and determined to 
destroy it, was prepared by all kinds of misrepresentation to 



influence the minds of the lukewarm by appealing to sectional 
prejudices and the jealousies arising from slavery ; so that, do 
or say what the Executive might, nothing could avail to allay 
suspicions, and satisfy the minds of traitors that the interests 
of the nation would be safe in his hands. To meet the expec- 
tations of honest men who differed on important issues was 
difficult ; to satisfy those determined to oppose, was impos- 
sible. All that could be done was to pursue an honest but 
determined policy ; one insuring not the gratification of a frac- 
tional minority of malcontents, nor the tame submission to the 
demands of an unpatriotic neutrality, nor yet the perfect affilia- 
tion with the extreme men who had aided in carrying the 
election, but a conservative course indicated by the wishes of 
every true patriot. Such, there can be no doubt, was the pur- 
pose of the President ; such, at least, the avowed intention of 
one who, by the course he has pursued, has extorted from many 
who admired him least the admission that he is honest and 
patriotic. Who, now, at this stage of our national troubles, 
doubts for a moment that had the secessionists laid down their 
arms and quietly submitted to lawful authority, all the guaran- 
teed rights of the states would have remained intact, and Mr. 
Lincoln would have administered the government with fidelity, 
exhibiting a due regard to the interests of the whole people '( 
But when the malcontents raised the standard of revolt ; when 
the plot was laid to assassinate the legitimate choice of the 
people, seize the capital with the archives of the nation, and 
on the ruins of lawfully constituted authority erect the creature 
of mob violence, and thus utterly destroy our free institutions ; 
then nothing remained but for the President to defend the 
Government, as well as his own rights, by summoning to his 
aid all the forces which the Constitution and the common sense 
of self-preservation put at his disposal. As the head of the 
nation he could do no less, except he were the veriest poltroon 
in the land ; yet for this he has been centured without stint by 
a venal press in our midst, and, as was to be expected, by the 
enemies of freedom abroad. Traitors in the North have vied 
with their friends in the South in reviling the President for 
that which the first law of nature dictates. 

But it is deserving ouj - closest attention that when the Presi- 
dent called for help, he did not first turn to the radicals of his 
party, but to the conservatives of the whole country ; and the 
policy which he tenaciously held was not that of extreme men ; 
so that those of moderate views had it in their power, by rally- 
ing to his help, to have had the war conducted on those prin- 
ciples which they advocate, and which Mr. Lincoln had con- 



stantly manifested. However, in default of this support, which 
we in the border states, as well as the conservative men 
throughout the country, denied him, he was forced further to 
the extreme of his party than he evidently desired to go ; for 
every public man, and especially in a crisis, must have the 
support of a powerful and well-agreed constituency; no luke- 
warm and vacillating helpers, but those who will give them- 
selves and all they possess for the cause they maintain. The 
supporters of Mr. Lincoln have therefore been almost exclu- 
sively those who affiliated with the Republican party ; who, 
while most of them did not desire that slavery, though doubt- 
less the real cause of the Avar, should be made the turning-point 
of its continuance, could nevertheless feel no desire to fight 
for its perpetuity. Nor was this feeling strange. For it must 
be borne in mind that the great majority of our people from 
the days of our independence, in common with most Christian 
nations, looked upon the institution as a moral, social, and 
economical evil ; and while it had a recognized status by the 
law of the land, this was effected at the time we became a 
separate nation, through fear that the agitation of the subject 
might prevent the cordial union of all the states. But our 
people had always looked forward to the time when this stigma 
on our free institutions could, by all lawful and proper means, 
be destroyed. For it is perfectly clear from their words and 
acts, that the political fathers of our country, even those in 
the South — such as Washington, Jefferson and Henry — were 
wont to speak in such terms of the institution as would, in the 
days when chivalry was in full bloom, have branded their 
authors with the name of abolitionist, and caused a sudden 
appreciation in the price of pitch and feathers. 

Nor can we blink the fact that most of our political trouble, 
from the day we became a nation, have arisen from the rela- 
tions of slavery to the government ; so that it is not the least 
strange that those who were careless as to its continuance, 
providing it did not carry its disturbing influences beyond its 
sectional boundaries, should look, with an evil eye upon its exist- 
ence, now that it is exhibited prominently as the destroyer of 
our peace. Doubtless wrong has often been intended by the 
abolitionists, and such wrongs as were keenly felt by us in the 
border states. While this was extremely distasteful to us as 
an interference with our vested rights, the most we could say 
was, that this was generally the result of individual madness 
and folly, as the deplorable John Brown raid ; or, at most, the 
agitation of newspapers to make electioneering capital, and the 
unfriendly legislation of individual states. For the General 



Government has always, before this outbreak, been jealous of 
our rights, has invariably shown an accommodating spirit 
toward our wishes, not to say a truckling obsequiousness to our 
constantly increasing demands and arrogancy. The Supreme 
Court had in fact become so completely subsidized to the inter- 
ests of slavery, since the death of Chief Justice Marshall, that 
we could get any decision we desired. We could carry slavery 
into all the territories (the only real plea for secession ever 
offered,) at the very time the war begun ; so that, so far as the 
Government was concerned, we had nothing of which we could 
complain. It is true, we could not compel our brethern in the 
North to love and cherish the peculiar institution ; we could 
not make all our own people, either the laboring classes or the 
more intelligent, beleive precisely as our political leaders would 
have us in the divinity of the system. We cannot reasonably 
expect, therefore, that a system, which from the first depended 
on sufferance for its existence, and which had been the source 
of so much political acrimony, when it had, in the estimation 
of the majority of our people, continued its encroachments 
until it produced insurrection, could be otherwise than hated by 
those who came from the free states to fight our battles. As 
reasonable men, therefore, we must bear these facts in mind 
when we account for the course which the Government has been 
compelled to take since it was assailed, and had to call the 
people to its relief. If it be replied that the assumption of 
slavery being the cause of the war is a false one, this avails 
nothing against the argument. For a deep-seated conviction, 
whether true or false, is equally strong in influencing human 
conduct ; and when a belief is universal we must take it into 
account in all matters which it influences, even though we can 
prove its falsity. 

We must likewise remember, when a nation becomes impli- 
cated in colossal difficulties, it is closely scrutinized by its 
neighbors. Hence, while free from trouble, it might pursue its 
course regardless of friend or enemy, without much danger ; 
yet, when on trial for existence, it must pay some deference to 
the moral convictions of civilized nations. For if all things do 
not move on in harmony with the sense of justice obtaining 
among neighboring governments, other powers may interfere 
in the internal policy of the one jeoparded by civil strife. As 
no man can live entirely by himself, so neither can a community 
or nation. Nothing was more dreaded by our people at the 
commencement of the civil war than foreign interference, and 
such fear was not without reason. For those European States 
with which we had most intercourse, having abolished African 



8 

slavery in their own dominions, had been officious in their zeal 
that we should follow their example, and showed an unmistaka- 
ble hostility to us for refusing. This was often far more the 
result of hostility to us than of moral sentiment or desire for 
the welfare of the parties concerned ; so that when our domestic 
troubles seemed fair to make us an easy prey to their power, 
there was every reason to apprehend trouble from this source. 
Now, if we take the tone of the foreign press and statesmen 
which are truly friendly to us as a criterion, we may safely 
hazard the assertion that Mr. Lincoln's Emancipation Procla- 
mation, however distasteful it be to loyal slaveholders, has done 
more to gain favor for us among foreigners, and ward off from 
us the intervention of England and France, than all other po- 
litical measures together. For the sentiments of those nations 
are determinedly hostile to slavery ; and however unfriendly 
those powers themselves are to us, yet the sympathy of the 
common people with the emancipation movement has rendered 
it impossible for the governments to take part with those who, 
in the words of Alexander Stephens, make slavery the corner- 
stone of their political fabric. 

These considerations have doubtless had their weight with 
the President in shaping his emancipation policy, and the won- 
der is that all combined have not given a greater preponderance 
than they have. Nothing but the most unflinching integrity, 
combined with the tenderest regard for the rights of loyal men 
in the Slave States, could have prevented more aggressive move- 
ments on the part of the Executive. For, however startling 
the measures advocated in several of Mr. Lincoln's proclama- 
tions appear to us, we are too prone to look at them as some- 
thing which has occurred in time of peace, when there was no 
pressure brought to bear upon him by the necessities of the 
hour. We should contemplate them from a war stand-point ; 
as something which the military condition seemed at least to 
the Government to demand, in order, by every available means, 
and at the least sacrifice of life and treasure, to weaken the 
power of the enemy. We moreover forget that these measures 
were not intended to injure Union men, since provision is made 
for their indemnification when their property is taken ; that 
traitors only are sought to be weakened ; and in truth, are the 
only ones permanently aifected. But in our zeal lest our rights 
be invaded, we assume as our own the wounds inflicted on the 
disloyal ; forgetting the labors and dangers of our friends, while 
commiserating the punishment which traitors have brought upon 
themselves while essaying to compass our destruction. If our 
attention was more fixed on the great interests of our Govern- 



9 

ment now jeoparded, and our sympathies brought into livelier 
action for the sufferings which this unholy rebellion has brought 
upon the defenders of freedom ; if all would acquiesce more 
heartily in the punishments which befall secessionists, as the 
natural outworking of their own wicked schemes, and reserve 
our complaints against the President for invading our rights 
while this is merely prospective, it is clear that we would act more 
the part of patriots, and sooner witness the entire subversion of 
treason. 

But to advance one step farther. Suppose our institutions 
have been trampled upon in some degree by the General Gov- 
ernment, and we are actually in danger of losing part of the 
rights we once enjoyed. , Admit that the people of the North 
are not willing to accord to us the immunities which the laws 
of our common country grant to slave property, still it does not 
follow that we alone suffer, or indeed more than our neighbors 
across the river, in any other sense than as being made the 
theater of hostilities. This is surely a great grievance, but 
arises solely from our geographical position added to our com- 
plication with the prime cause of the w r ar. The status of the 
whole country must be changed by a contest of such magnitude, 
and it is idle for us to expect our condition to remain the same 
after this universal commotion. Immense amounts of wealth 
are always destroyed in war, which are so much capital taken 
from the industrial resources of the country, and the people 
must be impoverished to that extent. This may, it is true, be 
represented mostly by the Government debt ; but however it 
be expressed, there is as much less property in the country as 
has been consumed by waging war ; and this sum will make 
itself be felt in our future condition in the form of increased 
taxation. From the greater amount of productive capital in 
the North, this must chiefly be met there. Accordingly, while 
all loyal people must feel the pecuniary burdens growing out 
of the war, we may expect to suffer with them. But if we 
experience losses in our slave property, our case is not singular, 
for the Government takes away forcibly from all loyal citizens 
the means to support the war, which, so far as can be seen, 
would never have arisen except for the existence of that spe- 
cies of property we feel to be peculiarly endangered. And it 
should ever s be remembered whence this danger has arisen. 
For if the South had been content with the guarantees which 
the forbearance of men in the convention of 1787 gave to the 
institution, and which subsequent legislation had continually 
strengthened, no occasion would have arisen requiring inter- 
ference. We in Kentucky and other Border States suffered far 
1* 



10 

more than those farther south from hostility to slavery, yet we 
were satisfied with our condition ; well knowing that our pecu- 
liar institution was unpopular with our northern neighbors, 
and with their sentiments toward it our slaves could* not be 
wholly secure. But the Congress of the United States, as if to 
take away every ground of complaint, and calm every fear for 
the future, passed, by an overwhelming majority, a resolution 
effectually guaranteeing perpetual immunity from interference 
on the part of the General Government ; so that there was in 
this respect again no excuse nor specious pretext for the seces- 
sion movement. So we see that it is secession which has brought 
all the danger upon us ; and if we complain, let us bestow our 
grumbling on the proper party. But now that the war has 
been inaugurated by the traitors, it brings incalculable evils on 
all parts of our country, so that, in an economical point of view, 
the debt entailed upon us, even if the war be closed this year, 
will not fall short of two thousand million dollars ; three-fourths 
of which will have to be paid by those who were opposed to 
slavery, and derived no direct advantage therefrom. This sum, 
to be paid by those who did not participate in the institution, 
is sufficient to buy every slave in the country, paying the enor- 
mous rate of five hundred dollars per caput. Why, then, we 
repeat, should our people murmur so loudly if they do lose 
their slave property ? It is, to say the most, no more valuable 
than any other kind. Or, if we must find vent to our sense of 
wrong, why not against those who forced the Government to 
engage in a war, the effect of which, with any method of con- 
ducting it, must be to endanger the status of slave property, as 
all civil wars have a tendency to do. We should, then, if the 
alternative comes, as good patriots, submit to those measures 
which our Executive has tried earnestly and perse veringly to 
avoid, but which the sentiments of the great body of the loyal 
people, or the exigencies of the times, may force him reluctantly 
to take. It is a fact strangely overlooked by our Union friends 
in the North, and their armies who come to fight our enemies, 
that there are many thoroughly loyal men who are pro-slavery 
from sentiment. Such men cannot understand why they should 
be made scapegoats for the sins of secessionists. For in the 
midst of persecutions, at a time when it cost a man something 
to stand up for the Union, they have held firm, and given 
themselves and their sons to fight for their only acknowledged 
country. They cannot understand why they, who have always 
opposed the traitorous movements of the fire-eaters, should now 
be included in an indiscriminate proscription, as is frequently 
done by thoughtless and wicked men who come to our State 



11 

fully possessed of the idea that there are no loyal men here. 
While these are great and just grievances, we ought to remem- 
ber that such conduct is not by the order of the Government, 
nor countenanced by it; but war turns loose many lawless men, 
who are only too glad for an opportunity to run riot with those 
passions which the restraints of peace kept chained. Besides, 
if others forget that we are loyal, we must never ourselves 
forget that fact ; and therefore it behooves us to submit to the 
losses and endure the abuses which we sometimes suffer ; for 
while undeserved and grievous, they are still of the same kind 
which all who maintain the cause of the Union have to endure. 
Hence, if called to suffer still more in the subjugation of the 
enemy, and surrender, as the result of a military necessity, 
(the only case we are satisfied in which this can occur,) our 
rights in slave property secured to us by the faith of our Gov- 
ernment, it'by no means follows that we ought to prove recreant 
to our country, which did protect us in all our rights while in 
its power to do so, when, through necessity growing out of the 
present crisis, it invades any of our institutions. The only case 
where the Executive has done anything to which true men could 
object, or where there is any ground of apprehension in the 
future, is that where slave property is involved. After we have 
poured out our treasure like water ; after we have surrendered 
our homes to be desolated by war; after we have given our 
sons without grudging to lay down their lives, shall we falter ? 
Shall we hesitate to yield that which has been the cause of our 
troubles; which the civilization of the world disapproves; and 
which we as emancipationists would be glad to get rid of? 
Surely we are not prepared, as the disunionists are, to accom- 
modate the language of a noted secessionist — Skin for skin, all 
a man hath ivill he give for his — nigger ! 

It is sincerely to be hoped that the General Government will 
never present the issue of taking away the slaves of loyal men. 
On the contrary, we trust that the President and his advisers, 
by attending to that which seems to us their legitimate duty, 
will be able to end the war successfully, and let us manage our 
municipal affairs in the way which seems good to us, and 
which we at least think we understand far better than our 
neighbors. But if the alternative be presented to yield to in- 
terference or turn against our country, and give our aid to those 
whose principles we hate, and who have plunged us into all 
our evils, the course for us is plain. It would, perhaps, be very 
humbling to our pride, and certainly unjust to our patriotism ; 
but preferable to treason, and in the end more satisfactory. 
For while as patriots we had better suffer wrong than to be 



12 

guilty of injustice, so also, as a matter of pure selfishness, it is 
better to permit the Government to do that which, if it does at 
all, will do reluctantly to us as friends, and therefore with some 
regard to our prejudices and interests, than, by becoming ene- 
mies, compel it to do the same by violence, For we are all well 
assured the Government will triumph, whichever way we go, 
and it will thoroughly accomplish all it finds necessary to the 
complete subjugation of its enemies ; so that our only safe as 
well as loyal course lies in obedience. Moreover, no man who 
is not blind can fail to see that slavery is destined to perish as 
one result of this insurrection. The secessionists see and 
acknowledge now what Union men in and out of the Border 
States foretold would be the effect of their mad course. In the 
words of the Richmond Whig: "Slavery has sinned against 
itself; it has bitten itself to death; it has committed the unpar- 
donable sin, and must die the death." Now this being acknow- 
ledged as the inevitable consequence, (and brought about by 
the insurgents themselves,) what can it avail the Border States 
to hold on to this system to their own undoing ? Why should 
that which must die out of natural decay as soon as there is a 
cordon of free States all around, be made the condition of trait- 
orous affiliation with our common enemy ? By holding on to 
our Government, we may safely cross the stream of civil war ; 
but if for the shadow of slavery we let go wljat Ave have, and 
plunge madly after our rights, we will lose all, and be lost our- 
selves. Added to this, it has been, as before shown, the desire 
of good and thoughtful men, even from our earliest history, to 
get rid of the institution by emancipation. For it is, to say the 
least, a social evil, a great disadvantage to the white race, as 
retarding the development of industrial resources ; and degrad- 
ing to labor by raising unnatural distinctions in society. There 
is very little doubt, that, could a vote have been taken on the 
merits of the question, without intimidation or bribery by the 
slave interest, and without our jealousies being inflamed by out- 
side interference, the lawful voters of every Border Slave State 
would have favored gradual emancipation. It is certainly true 
that this sentiment is strong in these States ; and this change 
is looked forward to by the better class of men as one which is 
very desirable, and which must soon have taken place, despite 
the bolstering up of worn-out politicians and a truckling press, 
even had secession not hastened it. So that it practically 
resolves itself into the time and manner of doing the work. 
But we hold that in both respects it is far better for the General 
Government to let us do our own work in the way our judgment 
dictates, both for the sake of master and servant. For the 



13 

violent changes of society are always attended with evil to all 
parties concerned ; a fact which the anti-slavery party in the 
North leave entirely out of view, and appear to consider 
nothing more to he necessary than universal and instant eman- 
cipation ; whereas, when this is un fait accompli, then the real 
difficulties of the case are just begun. Those negroes which 
the Government has already freed as the necessary result of the 
progress of the war, are more than can be provided for, as is 
witnessed by the terrible sufferings of this class, despite the 
assistance rendered from every quarter ; and as the work of 
subjugating the traitors progresses, the master will run from, 
and the slave toward, the Union armies, until the entire servile 
population of the seceded States will require protection. To 
carry on the war successfully, and provide for the wants of those 
who fall into the Federal lines, is a task quite as large as the 
Government appears to be able to accomplish. However, if it 
be in any way necessary for crushing the rebellion that we suffer 
the inconvenience of a hasty and violent change, we must yield ; 
and it is expedient for us, in view of our present situation, as 
well as the part of loyalty, to do so cheerfully and heartily. 
For if our friends in the Northern States are willing, in order 
to crush out a rebellion which they believe was caused by slavery 
alone, to saddle themselves with three-fourths of a debt of two 
thousand million dollars, and give a million and a half from 
the flower of their youth, we ought certainly, for the preserva- 
tion of our country united, yield up that which has always 
been a distracting influence, and is in itself of doubtful expe- 
diency. 

Such are some of the duties of loyal men growing out of our 
present condition, viewed with reference to our relations to the 
General Government on the one hand and slavery on the other. 
There are other duties more specific in kind, but more general in 
application, the consideration of which is equally pertinent to 
the times, but which are too often neglected by those professing 
themselves to be patriots. It is a self-evident truth that no 
government can be infallible ; and hence, with the best inten- 
tions on the part of rulers, blunders and wrongs will be fre- 
quently committed, and that these are to be pardoned on the 
general ground of the infirmity which clings to all things 
human. So long as the legislator conserves the rights com- 
mitted to his keeping with ordinary integrity, his minor defects 
are to be pardoned and concealed. In our democratic policy 
we have the oft-recurring and easy remedy of popular elections, 
if our public servants betray their trusts ; and the danger is 
rather in the frequency of the change, and unbridled licentious- 



14 

ness of condemnation, than in tyrannical impunity. It is far 
from being the purpose to advocate the screening of public ser- 
vants when they jeopard our welfare ; but it is necessary to be 
faithful to them while their purposes are right in the main. In 
peace these things can regulate themselves, and our liberties are 
quite as safe, being guarded by the Argus eyes of party, as 
the good name of our rulers is from unwarranted attacks. But 
when our country is involved, as at this time, in a struggle 
calling for the resources of the nation, the united energies of 
the people are required for the undivided support of our Gov- 
ernment battling for its existence. Party spirit must then be 
dropped, names forgotten, and side issues neglected in meeting 
the overwhelming dangers which threaten. For at such a time 
there ought to be but one party, but one interest ; and can be, 
except at our peril, but an homologous and undivided counsel. 
All that contributes to this result adds to the strength of the 
nation ; all that opposes does but distract the counsels and 
weaken the chances for success. But in this hour of trial we 
find multitudes, both North and South, who cannot rise above 
the mists of a groveling party selfishness, nor see in our present 
stupendous struggle anything more than an ordinary political 
contest. And because they possess no patriotism themselves, 
they cannot credit the Government with any ; and all its acts 
which do not quadrate with their own narrow selfishness are 
denominated tyrannical, because measured by their own traitor- 
ous standards. 

This kind of opposition manifests itself under protean shapes, 
but usually can be reduced to two or three kinds. Of these the 
most common is the pretended danger of the Constitution 
from the encroachments of military power. The most blatant 
defenders of the inviolability of this instrument, those whose 
eyes have long been a fountain of tears, whose sorrow refuses 
to be comforted, appear to have made Richmond, Virginia, 
their especial haunt. From this precious nest of traitors we 
have had jeremiads which sounded like the wailings for a first 
born, " lest that time-honored document, the Constitution of 
the United States, might be endangered by that tyrant en- 
throned at Washington, and his hireling minions." One 
would think from the earnestness wherewith they lamented its 
supposed desecration, they were the special conservators of our 
palladium of liberty. But all these traitors really desired was 
to have the exclusive monopoly of rending the Constitution 
into a thousand fragments. Whatever they did, whether it be 
to steal the public property, to destroy the Government, and 
kill without mercy all who stood 'up for the country of their 



15 

fathers, was right and constitutional ; but the moment mea- 
sures were taken for their punishment, either in person or 
estate, then, lo ! the Constitution was violated ; and they its 
very loyal supporters were very much alarmed lest they should 
be punished. This sore lamentation of the traitors at Rich- 
mond was immediately taken up in heart-rending notes, by all 
in sympathy with treason throughout the country, and one might 
justly suppose from the frequency and persistency wherewith 
secession sympathizers spoke of maintaining the inviolability 
of this instrument, that its guardians were numerous enough. 
and sufficiently vigilant to defend it from all injury. But these 
same persons think it quite consistent with their loud preten- 
sions to daily violate the oath they have taken to the Federal 
power; to aid the enemy by men and money ; to refuse to sup- 
port our armies engaged in suppressing an insurrection ; and 
to openly express a desire for secession to succeed in dismem- 
bering and destroying our country. Out on such hypocritical 
regard for the Constitution. Away with all such fears lest Mr. 
Lincoln transcends his prerogatives when punishing those in 
manifest sympathy with rebellion. When we find any one 
exceedingly exercised lest some scoundrel be abridged of the 
liberty to utter treason, we are compelled to think " there is 
something rotten in Denmark," that is in the devotion which 
such men profess for the Constitution, and have no difficulty in 
telling the extent of his loyalty. For when any traitor like Val- 
landigham is cut short in his cooperation with the enemy, then 
a great hue and cry is raised that personal liberty is endangered. 
But personal liberty to do what ? To raise and encourage in- 
surrection ; to resist the Government in its efforts to preserve 
its own existence ; for what else did he desire, whither else did 
all his efforts tend ? What influence do such men as Fernando 
Wood and Governor Seymour exert save to play into the hands 
of our common enemy ? If we desire proof of this, take the 
utterances of the Southern press, which always speak of these 
men as their friends ; and show that the hope of ultimate tri- 
umph is based largely on the diversions which such disaffected 
leaders make against the Government. Moreover, Ave see un- 
mistakably that our enemies abroad look to such miscreants as 
the means of weakening and finally destroying our Union. 
That mendacious publication, Blackwood 's Magazine, which is 
clearly and unequivocally secession in its sympathies (not that 
it loves the South any better than the North ; but sees in the 
suceess of the former the ruin of both), utters precisely the 
same slanders against our rulers and their supporters, that 
our home traitors and their brethren in the South continually 
employ. 



16 

None cried out more lustily to be let alone than those 
wretches who began the war by firing on the starving garrison 
at Fort Sumter, unless it be the cowardly sneaks among us who 
Avere in sympathy. So fearful were they lest the Constitution 
might be endangered by Mr. Lincoln's call for volunteers, and 
thus sedition punished, that they would suffer its utter over- 
throw by an armed enemy in front, and the peace man in the 
rear. Surely this is straining out the gnat and swallowing the 
camel. But who that is truly patriotic, that wishes to see our 
Government succeed in crushing this rebellion, has suffered by 
the suspension of the habeas corpus act? Every true man is 
safe ; and traitors in arms and their cowardly sympathizers 
deserve nothing but the gibbet, or the prison until they submit. 
Some, however, urge that while it is right for those who among 
us aid treason to be punished, yet this being provided for in a 
legal way, the military power should not interfere with the 
civil administration; but offenders should be tried by the reg- 
ular courts and suffer the legitimate punishments. But those 
who utter such sentiments are either very silly or very treach- 
erous. As well might Jeff. Davis be arraigned before the 
United States District Court for the District of Virginia, as 
Vallandigham before the court for the Southern District of 
Ohio. Here, among his own sympathizers (whom we know to 
be generally as disloyal as any man in South Carolina), with 
the right of challenging the jurymen, he could never be con- 
victed ; for care would be taken to have a packed jury ; and 
the result would be either acquittal or prolongation of the suit 
indefinitely. Everybody knows this perfectly, and therefore 
the remedy proposed is simply none at all. It is absurd to 
think that the Government is to be left without any resource, 
the sport of its enemies and the scorn of its friends. If courts 
and the ordinary administration of the Constitution be suffi- 
cient, wherefore do we resort to arms ? Send Chief Justice 
Taney, under a flag of truce, to Richmond to try Jeff. Davis 
for treason. Choose Benjamin for prosecuting attorney, with 
Humphrey Marshall and Wigfall for the defense. Empanel a 
jury from the persons who represent Kentucky and Tennessee 
in the Southern Congress. Let the Constitution, as inter- 
preted by those who have trampled it under foot, reign in all 
its glory, and then we would have traitors' carnival. But if 
we find this not to work well, and send our Grants and Bankses 
to try the traitors at Chattanooga and New Orleans, where is 
the difference if we send Burnside armed with "No. 38'" to 
Dayton, Ohio. We certainly have the same right to fight the 
enemy at home as abroad ; in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, 



17 

as in Virginia or Tennessee ; and, if need be, with the same 
weapons. For it is plain that the enemy put themselves out of 
the reach of the constitutional remedy in both places, either by 
annulling it or placing a false construction on its provisions ; 
and whenever it is found insufficient in application, then we must 
resort to the arbitrament of the sword. It would be strange, 
indeed, if a people made an instrument like the laws of the 
Medes and Persians, unalterable ; and then when found inad- 
equate to preserve the life of that people for whom it was formed, 
they must die politically ; because, while able to save themselves 
by new expedients found suited to the exigencies of the occa- 
sion, they must, nolens volens, hold fast to that which is unable 
to deliver them. Mariners are often compelled to throw out 
part of the cargo, or even the ship's tackling in the midst of a 
storm, to save themselves and the vessel; or even abandon the 
ship itself when stranded among the breakers, and escape by 
swimming to the shore. The people were before the Constitu- 
tion, and are therefore above it, on the principle that the man 
who built the house is greater than the house. They would 
survive if there were no constitution, and could form another. 
But where is the use of a Constitution if there is no people for 
it to govern ? Self-preservation is the first law of Nature, 
and we are permitted to make use of all expedients to effect 
this, except to do wrong. What is true of individuals is equally 
true of nations ; and no one but the traitors who have left their 
country for their country's good, and are waiting and watching 
over the border, or their equally guilty confreres who yet live 
by the lenity of our laws to sow discord among us, complain of 
martial law for doing that which the civil law in its ordinary 
application is inadequate to effect. Far be it from any true 
patriot to desire to see the ordinary forms of law neglected or 
the Constitution infringed. On the contrary, all loyal men 
look upon these as the bulwark of civil liberty, and deprecate 
the terrible necessity of resorting to the martial process. But 
at the same time the punishment of traitors by extraordinary 
means does not affect us with particular grief; and until patri- 
otic men are endangered, of which, at the present writing, 
there is not the least apparent danger, we can see no special 
reason for condemning the President for the course he has 
taken. In fact we have more tears for the thousands of brave 
men who are starving in prisons at Richmond as the result of 
a violated Constitution ; we are far more distressed for the mul- 
titudes of sick and wounded men languishing in hospitals ; for 
the homes made desolate throughout our countrv ; for the hosts 
of noble fellows who, amid the snows of winter and the showers 



18 

of summer, are fighting our common enemy, than for the 
apprehension and summary purishment of the sneaking cowards 
•who are doing the work of their traitorous friends in the South. 
Truly loyal men will cooperate with the Government in pun- 
ishing treason, whether by regular civil process or not. And 
indeed it is far better to save the life of a patient, even if this 
can not be done by rule, than that his death should occur 
though Hippocrates and Galen stood at the bedside. 

The charge of venality and corruption is often brought 
against the Government as a sufficient pretext for our with- 
drawal from its support. Doubtless this is frequently a true 
charge — we have had corruptions under previous Presidents. 
Mr. Buchanan's administration was not above suspicion, though 
he had as his supporters nearly all those who blame the present 
one. We have had defaulters in times of peace ; contractors 
who made fortunes by swindling the Government ; and such is 
likely to be the case to some extent in all places and times until 
the race of politicians is made of new material. If this cannot 
be avoided in peace, much less can it be in war ; for then the 
regular working of the laws is deranged so that bad men can 
do their mischief and escape detection. Without the most 
manifest injustice this cannot be charged to the fault of the 
Administration, unless it connives at abuses, nor in any condi- 
tion be made a justification of disloyolty. We well know that 
officials in high places have been summarily ejected for their 
complicity in fraud ; and the searching examinations made 
daily in every branch of service give assurance that corrupt 
men will not be tolerated after discovery. If we were justified 
in standing aloof for such a cause, then surely there could be 
no patriotism in' any land. But we forget that there was an 
Arnold in the Revolution. The English when villifying our 
Government for venality do not seem to remember Marlborough 
and Bacon. The Russian dominion is most arbitrary in its sway, 
and summary in the execution of punishments for unfaithfulness 
in office ; yet peculation and malfeasance were, during the 
Crimean war, manifested to an extent wholly unheard of among 
us. Our Executive and his chief advisers cannot justly be 
charged with lack of integrity in the management of the pub- 
lic funds ; and if others who are trusted prove unfaithful, the 
employers should not be deserted ; but it is rather the duty for 
those who discern the great abuses to rally to the support of 
the Administration, and by their honesty redeem us from our 
miseries. However, from the experience we have had with 
those who clamor most, when they once were n z>«wer, we do 
not desire to see their services accepted. Mo t of our depart- 



19 

ments have been managed with such wisdom during Mr. Lin- 
coln's term as to deserve all praise, and have disarmed the 
slander of such as were not blind to justice. No prime min- 
ister of England had ever more perplexing tasks, or executed 
them with greater fidelity, than several of our secretaries of 
bureaus since the war began. 

The charge which is constantly brought by disloyal persons 
against the present Administration, that it drags the war along 
in order to perpetuate its own existence, is an insinuation 
which carries falsehood on its very face. For the contrary 
course is so clearly the one to insure the lasting favor of the 
people, that if this war could be brought to a successful and 
speedy issue, Mr. Lincoln would at once secure for himself a 
position second only to that of Washington. Nothing in the 
gift of the American people would be too good for the Presi- 
dent and his advisers who had brought us honorably and safely 
through this perilous war. On the contrary, the continuance 
of hostilities tries our patience, depletes our treasury, and 
destroys our best men. But we look for the struggle to be 
ended too soon. Few wars of half the magnitude have pro- 
gressed as rapidly and successfully as this has done for the 
Federal arras. One year more such as the last, will utterly 
exhaust the resources of the secessionists. And yet this is a 
civil war, which is of all kinds the most tedious. 

Even if the Government was guilty of great wrongs, greater 
than the opposition charge, it does not follow that it is the duty 
of the patriot to expose its misdeeds in such a way as to make 
capital for the enemy. The patriot may mourn in secret over 
the errors of that government he loves ; and the more loyal he 
is the more will he lament its faults, as we grieve for the mis- 
deeds of a friend just in proportion to the hold he possesses on 
our affections. The son who, when his father was on trial for 
his life, or his mother's good name jeoparded, would go into the 
court, or among the gossips at the street corners, and disclose 
every idle word and venial fault of which he has been cognizant 
in their conduct, would not be considered as possessing natural 
affection or common sense. Nature teaches us by the holiest 
instincts of the heart, to stand up for those we love through evil 
report, and help sustain the burdens which their follies and sins 
may have brought upon them. History gives us one very note- 
worthy instance to the contrary ; but the curse which is supposed 
by many scriptural advocates of African slavery to have fol- 
lowed the descendants of the offender, does not give much 
encouragement for us to follow the example if we have regard 
to the welfare of our posterity. But the son who went back- 



20 

wards that he might not see the shame of his father, and then 
threw the covering to hide the exposure from others, received 
a blessing ; not that he approved the sin of drunkenness, 
not that he would encourage its repetition; but because the one 
guilty was his parent, and as a son he was jealous of his honor. 
So let us take warning for the guidance of our conduct, since 
our country is far more to us than the welfare of a father or 
the honor of a mother, however precious these be to every true 
son, as Socrates has well expressed : "Are you so wise as not 
to know that a man's country is more precious, more venerable 
and sacred, and in greater estimation both among gods, and 
men that have sense, than mother, and father, and all other 
progenitors ; and that one ought to reverence, yield to, and 
soothe one's country when angry, rather than one's father, and 
either persuade it or do what it orders ; and to suffer quietly, 
if it bids one suffer, whether to be beaten or put in bonds ; or 
if it sends one to battle, to be wounded or slain ; this must 
be done, for it is just ; and one must not give back, or retreat, 
or leave his post ; but that both in war, and in the civil court, 
and everywhere, one must do what his city and country enjoins, 
or persuade it in the way justice allows." — Plato., Crito, 51 

b. a 

There are, in truth, only two parties in our country, the 
Unionists and the Secessionists; there can be no middle ground, 
and those who are not for us in this struggle are against us. 
Hence, every act and word which weakens the hands of our 
rulers in their attempt to subdue our enemies, does but strengthen 
the foe. This can be done in no way more effectually than by 
withdrawing the moral support which a good name affords. It 
is therefore vain for any to say they are Union men, as may be 
heard any day among the copperheads of the North, or of this 
State, and at the same time perpetually attack the Government 
in all its measures. Those persons who say so much to the dis- 
paragement of the loyal Government that they must, from time 
to time, make public proclamations that they are Union men 
in order for that fact to be even suspected, and make vehe- 
ment asseverations of their patriotism as a kind of salvo for 
continual expressions of disloyalty — surely from such friends 
may the republic pray to be delivered. 

Closely connected with the foregoing in effect, if not always 
in animus, is the class of croakers, who are perpetually prophets 
of evil — birds of ill omen, who, whether they rise up on the 
right hand or the left, true to their native instincts, fly toward 
the South. We do not mean trimmers, who are precisely what 
the company is ; who are for the Union or for Secession 



21 

according to the prospects of the political horizon. These have 
no claim to loyalty, but it is a happy thought that they are 
harmless ; for though, like the drone bee, they make a great 
fuss, yet they have no sting. Such persons are no help to either 
party, for they are too cowardly to fight, and too weak to have 
any weight in counsel. They try to please all, and therefore are 
trusted by none. But this is not the class meant. It is that one 
composed of those unfortunates who see nothing but disaster, 
where others see victory ; who would not fight, (not that they 
lack the courage, but) because they feel certain beforehand they 
would be whipped ; who always have bad neAvs, and rise up 
before day to tell it ; and then, if it be subsequently contradicted, 
forget to make the proper correction. Such persons magnify 
each advantage of the enemy into a decisive victory, and belittle 
every success of our arms till it vanishes into air. When news 
of different sorts comes they have " three ears " to hear the bad, 
but are deaf as the adder to the report of the good. And the 
same dispositions makes them seers for the future. While 
continually uttering prophesies of adversity, of course some- 
thing, from time to time, does, according to their fancy, prove 
true ; andstraightway they wear the hairy garment to deceive. 
Such persons gather around them those of like feelings, and 
weaken each other's courage until they utterly despair of the 
Republic ; for the native hue of resolution is sicklied o'er by 
their pale cast of thought. Sometimes this rabies assumes the 
higher forms of criticism, and we have elaborate and, without 
exception, unfavorable dissertations on civil and military mat- 
ters. For these critics feel themselves so thoroughly able to 
guide the State and hound on the dogs of Mars, that they are 
"the men;" and because they are likely to die without their 
sagacity being appreciated, the state will assuredly perish, since 
"wisdom will die with them." Such persons are so wise that 
they know by intuition more than others do by long years of 
persevering study ; and much like the Greek sophists, are able 
to speak equally well on all subjects. They proclaim with the 
most complacent certainty that our generals are all fools, and 
our cabinet officers numskulls. While our foreign relations 
have been conducted with so much prudence, amid many vex- 
atious and dangerous complications, as to extort praise from 
inimical publicists of Europe ; while our currency has been so 
successfully managed as to astonish us all, these critics go on 
berating our Government advisers without limit: never seeming 
to remember that their foolish predictions of a year ago have 
been utterly falsified by subsequent facts. If such would alto- 
gether hold their peace, this, at least, would prove their wisdom. 



22 

Such persons are far more injurious than if they were in the 
ranks fighting against us. For if they were with the foe, unless 
their nature was entirely changed, they would spread dismay by 
their lugubrious vaticinations and disparaging criticisms. Pos- 
sibly a man of this character may be loyal, but surely his loy- 
alty is not of the kind to inspire confidence in the times which 
try men's souls. That loyalty which is worth the name never 
despairs. It accepts every vigorous measure against the ememy 
as an augury of good ; supports the Government in matters of 
doubtful expediency, even for the sake of avoiding divided 
counsels ; and forsake snot the legitimate ruler because through 
frailty he may do wrong, or not achieve that measure of suc- 
cess hoped for. It considers the labors and perplexities, the 
anxieties and watchings which distract those high in authority ; 
and affords honor and sympathy corresponding to their trials. 
It rises equal to the occasion, and if darkness surrounds, it can 
by its own faith strike out a light to dispel the gloom. That 
loyalty never doubts since it believes its cause right, and that 
God will maintain the right; and because he can save by many 
or few — this, and this alone, is worthy the name of patriotism — 
this, and this alone, revives the drooping spirits after defeat, 
and prevents the relaxation of sloth after victory. 



THE NEGROES AND THE WAR. 

IMPORTANT LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT. 

The following noble letter from President Lincoln appears in 
a correspondence published in the Frankfort (Kentucky) Com- 
monwealtli : 

Executive Mansion, Washington, 
April 4, 1864. 

A. G. Hodges, Esq., Frankfort, Ky., 

My Dear Sir : — You ask me to put in writing the substance 
of what I verbally said, the other day, in your presence,. to 
Governor Bramlette and Senator Dixon. It was about as fol- 
lows : 

I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing 
is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel. 



23 

And yet, I have never understood that the Presidency conferred 
upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judg- 
ment and feeling. It was in the oath I took, that I would to the 
best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. I could not take the office without 
taking the oath. Nor was it my view, that I might take an 
oath to get power, and break the oath, in using the power. I 
understood, too, that, in ordinary civil administration, this oath 
even forbade me, to practically indulge my primary, abstract 
judgment on the moral question of slavery. I had publicly 
declared this many times, and in many ways. And I aver that, 
to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to my 
abstract judgment and feeling on slavery. 

I did understand, however, that my oath to preserve the 
Constitution to the best of my ability, imposed upon me the 
duty of preserving, by every indispensible means, that Govern- 
ment — that Nation, of which that Constitution was the organic 
law. Was it possible to lose the Nation, and yet preserve the 
Constitution ? 

By general law, life and limb must be protected ; yet often 
a limb must be amputated to save a life ; but a life is never 
wisely given to save a limb. I feel that measures, otherwise 
unconstitutional, might become lawful, by becoming indispen- 
sible to the preservation of the Constitution, through the pre- 
servation of the Nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, 
and now avow it. I could not feel that to the best of my ability 
I had even tried to preserve the Constitution, if to save slavery 
or any minor matter, I should permit the wreck of Govern- 
ment, Country and Constitution, all together. When early in 
the war General Fremont attempted military emancipation, I 
forbade it because I did not then think it an indispensible 
necessity. When a little later, General Cameron, then Secre- 
tary of War, suggested the arming of the blacks, I objected, 
because I did not yet think it an indispensible necessity. When, 
still later, General Hunter attempted military emancipation, I 
again forbade it, because I did not yet think the indispensible 
necessity had come. 

When, in March, and May, and July, 1862, 1 made earnest 
and successive appeals to the Border States, to favor compen- 
sated emancipation, I believed the indispensible necessity for 
military emancipation, and arming the blacks would come, 
unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposi- 
tion, and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative, 
of either surrendering the Union, and with it the Constitution, 
or of laying strong hand upon the colored element. I chose 



24 

the latter. In choosing it, I hoped for greater gain than loss ; 
but of this I was not entirely confident. More than a year of 
trial now shows no loss by it, in our foreign relations ; none in 
our home popular sentiment; none in our white military force — 
no loss by it any how or any where. On the contrary, it shows 
a gain of quite a hundred and thirty thousand soldiers, seamen 
and laborers. These are palpable facts, about which, as facts, 
there can be no caviling. We have the men, and we could not 
have had them without the measure. 

And now, let any Union man, who complains of the mea- 
sure, test himself, by writing down in one line, that he is for 
subduing the rebellion by force of arms, and in the next, that 
he is for taking these hundred and thirty thousand men from 
the Union side, and placing them where they would be, but for 
the measure he condemns. If he cannot face his cause so stated, 
it is only because he cannot face the truth. 

I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. In 
telling this tale I attempted no compliment to my own sagacity. 
I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that 
events have controlled me. Now, at the end of three years' 
struggle, the Nation's condition is not what either party or any 
man devised or expected. God alone can claim it. Whither 
it is tending seems plain. If God now wills the removal of a 
great wrong, and wills also, that we of the North, as well as 
you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that 
wrong, impartial history will find therein new cause to attest 
and revere the justice and goodness of God. 

Yours truly, A. LINCOLN. 



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